One Ingredient Homemade Butter

I love cooking and baking, but what I enjoy even more is sharing with you how easy it is to make pantry staples that you’d otherwise just buy from the store. For example, homemade vanilla extract, ricotta cheese or peanut butter, and now, the absolute simplest of them all – fresh, heavenly homemade butter!

Yup, you heard me right. And it only takes heavy cream and 10 minutes. How great is that?

I’d say pretty darn great.

Not only is this recipe efficient for using leftover heavy cream, but it tastes as delicious on toast as it does in any chocolate chip cookie. That’s just the beauty of homemade butter – You can use it just like you’d use store bought stuff in cooking, baking, panfrying, sauce making and everything in between.

Just pour in the cream, process in your food processor, and push all the water out of the cream curds through a strainer. It’s as easy as that!

You can also add finely chopped herbs, berries, fruit zest or other flavorings to create a compote butter. These are wonderful to add extra flavor to roasted meats and vegetables, and served with warm baked goods.

One Ingredient Homemade Butter

Yield:Makes 1 cup butter

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

Directions:

Pour cream into a food processor or blender. Process for 10 minutes, or until the butter separates. Strain off the liquid. Season to taste with salt, if you like. Press butter into a small bowl with the back of a spoon to further remove liquid.

Also, if you want a compote butter, add finely chopped herbs, fruit or other flavorings. Get creative!

I grew up on a dairy farm in the Michigan UP. Saturdays were baking day and we would start in the morning mixing up the bread and setting it aside to rise, then go on to cookies, cakes, pies, etc. All that would be eaten in the next week (or put away in the freezer for when company came by).

My job (aside from peeling the apples) was to churn the butter. Churn. Our churn was a glass jar that was fitted with a paddle and a handle to turn the paddle kind of like an old hand egg beater. I would turn and turn and turn and turn. Then I would turn the jar around and turn with the other arm. Finally, butter!

I can remember being absolutely furious when I learned (at a much later age) that butter could be made with an electric mixer!!! (for me this is easier than a food processor or blender). Thanks for the reminder ;-)

But I have to say, there is nothing as good as a slice of fresh baked bread with a slather of fresh churned butter (and hopefully so homemade preserves as well!)

We went to the Central FL fair a few months ago and they had a “make your own butter booth”… they handed you a small plastic container of heavy cream and you had to shake it till it separated! it was SOOO good though – glad to know you can use the food processor (my arm hurt after shaking it for 15 mintes hah)!

I love homemade butter. We always tell the story of the Thanksgiving when my poor cousin wasn’t used to a standing mixer and made butter instead of whipped cream. She just didn’t realize it would got that fast and didn’t pay attention, poor girl.

I’ve also put whipping cream in jars and kept a bunch of cub scouts busy shaking them for an entire evening before. It’s just magical when it starts to turn into butter, and sooo delicious. They didn’t complain once they got to taste it.

My grandparents had a farm and when I was small we used to make this. Unfortunately I don’t remember the taste but with fresh good ingredients one can imagine. I should try this again, thanks for the inspiration

I discovered homemade butter by accident when I was making whip cream and got interrupted. I left it and came back awhile later, started whipping again and there was my butter! The freshest, most delicious butter I had ever tasted! Thanks for the reminder!

This looks SO cool. I have some heavy cream at home and have got to try this. The kids will be amazed! Butter is one of those mysterious foods, I think – I’ve never thought about how it gets to be that way. It’ll be SO cool to make our own. Thank you!

What a great idea! I try not to buy heavy cream in the bigger cartons but I always end up doing so because it’s cheaper. I’ll have to make my own butter next time. Thanks for commenting on my blog. I’ve added yours to my Google Reader and look forward to reading your future posts.

A couple of weeks ago I read a post on design sponge about homemade butter. I had no idea how easy it is!! And now you’ve made it sound even more simpler, so I’ve offically be reassured. Not that I even need reassuring? Great post, Georgia!

I remember the jar with the paddle with ‘not so fond’ memories. I hated turning that handle! And it was MY job. Saying that, we always washed our butter after straining the ‘buttermilk’ out of it. That buttermilk can turn sour or add a bad flavor, ruining the taste of your butter. Simply use cold water and a paddle of some sort and keep pushing the butter around in the cold water, pressing it until the water runs clear. Then, when finished, press the butter and pour off any water that comes out.

Completely agree about the butter! I’ve been making my own for awhile now. (My friends think I’ve officially lost it.) I *swear* it makes for better sauteing, cooking, you name it. Glad to see I’m not the only one. ;) And you’re right, it really is pretty easy.

I love home made butter. I try and make some every time I have some left over heavy cream. The first time I made it was by mistake, was trying to whip up some cream for a cake and got sight-track and mixed until it separated.

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Welcome to The Comfort of Cooking. Simple, scrumptious comfort food recipes with a twist is what you’ll find here, some indulgent and some light, but always fresh and frugal. Thanks for visiting! (read more)